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Jail Time Yields a Clash on Vegetarian Meals

What started as the dubious drug bust of a beloved, elderly Mill Valley merchant — a case that rattled many in this bucolic burb — is morphing into a clash about vegetarian rights. Dave McDonald, 70, of Mill Valley, has been a vegetarian for 42 years. But when he was jailed recently for 99 days on drug-related charges (most of which were later dropped), Mr. McDonald was denied vegetarian meals.

He refused to eat anything that he did not know was animal-free, and as a result, his weight plummeted nearly 50 pounds to 155.

“I don’t want animal corpses on my plate,” said Mr. McDonald, who is now free on bail. “My belief in not hurting animals is more powerful than any religious belief.”

Had Mr. McDonald said he was a vegetarian for religious reasons, or because of a medical condition, the county would have been legally required to comply. But Marin County officials said that simply believing in the sanctity of animal life was not enough.

Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called what happened to Mr. McDonald “cruel and unusual punishment,”and animal rights advocates are now positioned to wage war on his behalf.

“We would certainly be willing to help him,” Ms. Newkirk said, suggesting that the county could be sued. “A moral position is as strong as a religious conviction.”

The case has shed light on the complexities and inconsistencies of nutrition in California’s penal system. Title 15, a set of regulations governing imprisonment, seems to support the county’s policy of providing special diets only for religious or medical needs.

But in an age in which an increasing number of people have developed strong feelings about what they eat, jails in nearby San Francisco and Contra Costa Counties take a more lenient approach and provide vegetarian meals on request.

Michael Risher, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said personal beliefs that represent a “spiritual world view” not associated with an organized religion were often disregarded in prison.

Still, Mr. Risher said, since the Marin County jail already has the ability to serve vegetarian meals for religious reasons, Mr. McDonald’s request should have been honored.

“It seems outrageous that they let a 70-year-old lose 50 pounds when the remedy was so clear,” Mr. Risher said.

Photo

Dave McDonaldCredit
Scott James/The Bay Citizen

Jan Wyatt-Lucha, a registered dietitian and food service manager for the jail, said the county had complied with the law and warned that accommodating a multitude of diet demands from the facility’s 300 inmates was problematic.

“It’s gotten out of hand and has become very, very costly,” Ms. Wyatt-Lucha said. The ingredients cost about $1 a meal per inmate, not including preparation costs.

Capt. David Augustus of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, said that after Mr. McDonald complained about his weight loss, he was monitored by staff members.

Nonetheless, the incident has led the jail to review its restrictions on vegetarian meals.

We want “to be doing the right thing,” Captain Augustus said.

The controversy surrounding Mr. McDonald’s treatment is just the latest twist in his story. His arrest has caused some alarm in Mill Valley.

His shop, The Pleasure Principle, was a fixture in the quaint downtown for nearly 50 years — an oddball emporium of jewelry, adult videos, U.F.O. gimcrack and marijuana drug paraphernalia. On March 23 officers from the state’s Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement raided the shop, at gunpoint, and arrested Mr. McDonald for suspicion of trafficking in crystal methamphetamine.

Stephen Ladeck, a special agent overseeing the case, said investigators acted on a tip. “We received information, and we’re obligated to follow up on it,” Mr. Ladeck said.

But Sean Kensinger, the county prosecutor in the case, said lab tests later revealed that what investigators “thought was methamphetamine actually came back to be a substance that was not a controlled substance.”

Most of the charges were dropped, but Mr. McDonald remains accused of possessing and intending to sell drug-related chemicals. He has pleaded not guilty.

Many in town are in disbelief over the charges, and some took up a collection to bail out Mr. McDonald, who has no family members locally.

“I couldn’t believe how much weight he’d lost,” said Alan Chu, who led the bail effort.

This week Mr. McDonald grimly emptied his shop, which, he said, lay in ruins from the raid. He was evicted for failing to pay rent while he was behind bars.

A steady stream of local residents stopped to express their concerns about what had happened — and to note how gaunt Mr. McDonald looked.

Scott James is an Emmy-winning television journalist and a novelist who lives in San Francisco.

sjames@baycitizen.org

A version of this article appears in print on August 5, 2011, on page A19A of the National edition with the headline: Jail Time Yields a Clash On Vegetarian Meals. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe